Industrial Scrap Recovery for Critical Minerals

While post-consumer recycling of critical minerals captures headlines, industrial scrap recovery operates as the quiet workhorse of the secondary materials economy. Manufacturing processes inevitably generate waste: machining swarf, grinding sludge, coating overspray, rejected components, spent catalysts, and off-specification batches. For many critical minerals, this "new scrap" or "prompt scrap" represents the most economically efficient recycling pathway because the material composition is known, the quantities are concentrated, and business-to-business collection networks are well established.

Industrial scrap recycling for critical minerals has operated commercially for decades in sectors like tungsten carbide tooling, platinum group metal catalysis, and superalloy manufacturing. These established recovery loops demonstrate that high recycling rates are achievable when the right conditions exist: concentrated material flows, known compositions, economic incentives, and short supply chains between generator and recycler. Understanding these success stories provides a blueprint for expanding recycling across a broader range of critical minerals applications.

Tungsten Carbide Scrap

Tungsten is one of the critical minerals with the highest industrial scrap recycling rates, estimated at approximately 30 percent of global supply. Cemented tungsten carbide, used in cutting tools, drill bits, wear parts, and mining inserts, is extremely hard and durable, which means that worn tools retain most of their tungsten content. The recycling industry for tungsten carbide scrap is mature and global, with dedicated collectors, consolidators, and processors operating in every major manufacturing economy.

Two principal recycling routes exist. The zinc reclaim process dissolves the cobalt binder in molten zinc, allowing the tungsten carbide grains to be recovered intact and reused directly in new cemented carbide production. The chemical process dissolves the entire scrap in acid or alkaline solutions, producing ammonium paratungstate that re-enters the primary tungsten supply chain. Both routes are commercially profitable at current tungsten prices, and major carbide manufacturers like Sandvik, Kennametal, and Ceratizit actively operate or contract scrap recycling programs to supplement their virgin tungsten supply.

Platinum Group Metal Recovery

Platinum group metals (PGMs) including platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium, and ruthenium are among the most valuable materials per unit weight in the periodic table, and their industrial scrap recycling rates reflect this value. Spent automotive catalytic converters are the largest single source of recycled PGMs, but industrial applications generate substantial scrap volumes as well. Chemical process catalysts, petroleum refining catalysts, glass manufacturing equipment, and laboratory ware all contain PGMs that are routinely recovered at end of life.

The PGM recycling industry is dominated by specialized refiners such as Johnson Matthey, BASF, Heraeus, and Umicore, who operate closed-loop systems with their industrial customers. A chemical manufacturer using a platinum catalyst, for instance, will typically return the spent catalyst to the refiner for PGM recovery and credit against new catalyst purchases. These closed-loop arrangements achieve recovery rates exceeding 95 percent and are economically attractive due to the high unit value of PGMs. The global PGM recycling rate from all sources (industrial and automotive) is estimated at 25-30 percent of annual demand, with industrial scrap contributing a significant share.

Cobalt and Nickel Superalloy Scrap

The aerospace and power generation industries consume large quantities of cobalt and nickel in the form of superalloys used for turbine blades, combustion chambers, and other high-temperature components. Manufacturing these precision components generates substantial machining waste, and the strict quality requirements mean that significant volumes of material are rejected during production. This superalloy scrap is highly valuable due to its known composition and high concentration of cobalt, nickel, chromium, tungsten, and rhenium.

Superalloy recycling is handled by specialty smelters who can precisely control alloy composition during remelting. Companies like Special Metals, Cannon-Muskegon, and various vacuum induction melting (VIM) operators purchase sorted superalloy scrap at prices close to virgin material value. The economics are favorable because recycled superalloy avoids the energy-intensive primary extraction and refining of cobalt and nickel, while the resulting product meets the same stringent specifications as virgin material. Rhenium recovery from superalloy scrap is particularly important given that rhenium is one of the rarest elements used industrially and has very limited primary production.

Tantalum Scrap

Tantalum, used in electronic capacitors, chemical processing equipment, medical implants, and sputtering targets for semiconductor manufacturing, benefits from well-developed scrap recovery networks. Sputtering targets, which are used to deposit thin tantalum films in semiconductor fabrication, are replaced when only partially consumed and represent a concentrated, high-purity feedstock for recycling. Manufacturing scrap from capacitor production, including tantalum powder and wire offcuts, is similarly collected and reprocessed.

Global tantalum recycling from all sources contributes an estimated 20-30 percent of annual supply. The Tantalum-Niobium International Study Center (TIC) tracks recycling volumes and promotes responsible sourcing practices. Because tantalum's primary supply is subject to ethical concerns related to artisanal mining in Central Africa, recycled tantalum offers manufacturers a conflict-free supply alternative, adding a reputational incentive beyond the economic rationale.

Rare Earth Scrap from Manufacturing

The production of rare earth permanent magnets generates significant manufacturing scrap. Sintered NdFeB magnet manufacturing involves pressing and sintering rare earth alloy powder, followed by machining (slicing, grinding, and polishing) to achieve final dimensions. These machining steps can waste 20-30 percent of the input material as swarf and sludge, representing a concentrated and compositionally uniform rare earth feedstock.

In China, where the majority of rare earth magnets are manufactured, magnet production scrap is routinely collected and reprocessed. Outside China, nascent magnet manufacturing operations in Japan, Europe, and the United States are establishing scrap recovery programs as they scale up production. The quality and uniformity of manufacturing scrap make it the most economically attractive feedstock for rare earth recycling, far more so than mixed post-consumer scrap from end-of-life electronics.

Expanding Industrial Scrap Recovery

The success of industrial scrap recycling for tungsten, PGMs, superalloys, and tantalum offers important lessons for expanding critical minerals recovery more broadly. The key success factors include concentrated material flows with known compositions, established collector and processor networks, economic incentives aligned with material value, and manufacturer participation in closed-loop systems. Applying these principles to newer critical minerals applications, such as gallium from semiconductor manufacturing scrap, germanium from fiber optic production waste, and indium from sputtering target recycling, can incrementally expand secondary supply.

As the economics of recycling improve and policy frameworks like the EU Critical Raw Materials Act mandate higher recovery rates, industrial scrap recycling will remain the foundation upon which the broader critical minerals circular economy is built. Its proven profitability and operational maturity make it the most immediate and scalable pathway for increasing secondary supply of strategic materials.